


Beginnings

by DarkOwlFeather



Series: Retelling Corona's Tales [1]
Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon Divergence, From Corona's Creation to the Aftermath of ZT's Defeat Against Demanitus, Lore Lore Lore, Magic, Pre-Canon, Some Corona and Saporia diplomacy, Some lone tower in the forest, Sundrop Flower, The Great Tree before ZT, Trying to Fill the Plot Holes, Yet Trying to Stay in Sync with Canon, not beta read we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 07:47:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27347623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkOwlFeather/pseuds/DarkOwlFeather
Summary: Gothel's origin story, learning from Demanitus and Zhan Tiri.Sundrop and Moonstone shenanigans.Corona and Saporia diplomacy from way before the beginning of the canon.Few changes from the canon, yet trying to stay a bit in sync with what we know from the canon."There were two comets, or what looked like comets, one yellow, the other blue, whirling together in the sky. From the yellow one emanated gentle swirls of light, while from the blue one came lightning. The comets were falling fast, and as they crossed into the atmosphere, they separated. The yellow one went south from Gothel’s village, toward the sea, while the blue one went east, to a land of dark mountains. Never the soon-to-be healer could have thought that day that her life and fate would be linked to these fragments of cosmos fallen on the Earth."
Series: Retelling Corona's Tales [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1997140
Comments: 10
Kudos: 19





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I started this fanfic with the question “What if Cass had lived her childhood with her mother?”, then it became “Why did a self-centered and self-absorbed person like Gothel had a child in the first place if she clearly didn’t care about her?”, and it ended as an origin story of Gothel… and finally became so much more in the later parts ^^  
> Cassandra’s childhood will be for a second part of this story, titled ["A Tale of Eclipsed Moon and Eclipsed Sun"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27797335/chapters/68050936).  
> This first part really gives the setting of what will become canon divergence. "Beginnings" is only canon compliant because it fills plot holes.
> 
> As Gothel and the other characters are all centuries younger than we know them in canon, I allowed myself to change a bit their personalities. I tried to not overdo it, so you should recognize each character though. It’s mostly about how they come to be the one we know in canon.
> 
> Have a nice reading!

Long ago, Corona and the other kingdoms were only dreams in the minds of those who rallied by their sides villages that would become cities. Most of these villages were small towns, living from the products of the earth, and hunt, as well as craft industry.

Near a river away from the sea, on the side on a mountain, there was one of these little towns. It had prospered for decades, if not centuries, and sent its richness to its neighbor villages. This town is no more. Few people remember it has ever existed.

In this town, there was an apothecary. The healer was an old man, who had learned with faraway druids if you trusted his words. Many knew he had learned at the nearest big city. He had to help him a woman learning the job. She was young at the time, and till recently, longed to stay young. She was a great student, a fast-learner. Soon, she would take the apothecary and replace the magister as he went for a well-deserved retirement. The old doctor, none remember his name. But his student, all know her as Gothel.

She was born in the town, from a healthy family. One could say she was a spoiled child in her youth. She had pretty much everything she wanted. When she started something, was it reading, cooking, learning, building, she always finished it. She never wanted anyone to mess with her work, whatever it might be. Nor did she ever went to get anyone’s help. When she had decided she wanted to work at the apothecary, getting her to go learn with the healer instead of burying herself in books was proven quite difficult.

Yet, learning with the magister helped Gothel with the social distance she had always put between her and the others. There, she went easily get ingredients for unguents or potions, buy fabric and wood for casts, and go to the people when they needed help. None could have predicted this ever so helpful young lady would turn later into a selfish old witch.

One day in winter, as she was up in the mountain to get scarce medicinal plants, an impressive explosion echoed from afar. Gothel, like everyone else in her village and the whole country, looked up to the sky. There it was, fire in plain day.

There were two comets, or what looked like comets, one yellow, the other blue, whirling together in the sky. From the yellow one emanated gentle swirls of light, while from the blue one came lightning. The comets were falling fast, and as they crossed into the atmosphere, they separated. During a fraction of seconds, a wide dark cloud shaded the sky behind them. It was gone as fast as it as came.

The yellow one went south from Gothel’s village, toward the sea, while the blue one went east, to a land of dark mountains. Never the soon-to-be healer could have thought that day that her life and fate would be linked to these fragments of cosmos fallen on the Earth.

But for the moment, these comets had already sealed her fate. Winter was here, and snow covered big parts of the mountain’s sides. The explosion caused by the cosmic entities coming to the Earth started an avalanche. Gothel had only time to protect herself behind a rock big enough, away from the avalanche’s main track, but she could do nothing for her village, directly down the path of snow. She could only watch. The avalanche wasn’t a normal one, all could see that. It was gigantic, one that could trap cities for ages, one that could destroy civilizations. And with the falling snow from the mountain side rose a blizzard storm. To see only meters away was a prowess worth of godlike eyes. And none had that. Who knows how long the storm longed? Hours, that was certain. To see an end in this freezing hell on Earth would have required precognition.

When at last the avalanche was over, and the storm calmed enough to see part of the valley, Gothel tried to get back down to her home. Her foot found a slippery stone frozen by the wet and chilly air, and she fell down to her village, caught in her furs of clothes.

When she came back to her senses, it was dusk, and the village was lifeless. She blinked, trying to remember what had happened. As Gothel tried to get up, she fell again, the weight of snow on her cloak binding her to the ground. Yet, her short movement saved her. Someone, away, with a fired torch in hand, saw her, and came running.

“Master,” she could hear a male voice say to someone else, “come, there’s a survivor!”

“Get a shovel, Xavier, I’ll start a fire,” answered the other person.

“I’m on it,” said Xavier. “Hang on there, miss, we’re going to get you out.”

That was all Gothel remembered. As soon as she understood she was saved, her mind drifted away from consciousness.

The next thing she remembered was getting warmed with a heavy wool cover, in front of a bright campfire. As her eyes turned around, she recognized the area. It was her village, but the ground must have been meters below her, and only the up floors windows could be seen out of the snow.

At her left, one of the men that saved her was sleeping, while the other, in front of her, was keeping the fire alive.

“How are you, miss?” he asked her.

She recognized the voice as the one who had been called master by the other man.

“I’m fine…” Gothel answered, unsure. “Who else is alive?”

“We came as soon as we heard of the avalanche, but I fear we came too late. You were the only one we could find in the snow. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. You’re not the one who caused the avalanche.”

“In a way, I might be. I am Demanitus. I am a man of science, an engineer, though I do some magic too. And I have been working on the frail paths that exists between this world and others. And I fear my last attempt to open a portal caused these comets to come to Earth.”

“That’s impossible,” said Gothel. “There is no such things as other worlds. And these comets, they were bond to come here. It’s how things are in the sky.”

“Yes, they had to come. I call them Sundrop and Moonstone, as them come from the Sun and Moon. But if my calculations are correct, and they always are, they weren’t supposed to come before a long time. Centuries, millennia maybe. The cosmos time if far from the time we know here.”

“And so, what are you going to do, Demanitus? My village is certainly not the only one to have suffered from these Sundrop and Moonstone, as you call them.”

“I doubt it. But I can’t be anywhere at once. My student Xavier and I have were close to this village when it happened. As much as it pains me to tell you this, your home is gone, miss. You could join us.”

“I… I’ll have to think about it.”

“Of course, I’m not expecting you to follow us blindly. May I just know your name?”

“I’m Gothel.”

“Glad to meet you, Gothel. You should get some sleep. I’ll wake Xavier up to guard the camp. At dawn, we’re leaving. As you said it, other villages may need our help.”

The rest of the night was cold, and the wool cover was just enough to not freeze in place. When they woke up at dawn, the snow hadn’t melt at all, and only the rooftops could help recognize the area, are none of the streets nor roads signs could be seen.

They broke camp as soon as possible and went on the road. Or at least, above what they assumed was the road. They walked for days, and during all those days, the yellow and blue lights in the sky kept shining, beacons of mysteries far away.

The nearest town had been built next to a river. As they took down the path to the streets, a heavy fog welcomed them. Demanitus lighted the way with a flame in his palms, as did Gothel, as she had already learned a trick or two from the scientist. Xavier preferred a trustful torch.

Not that he despised magic, but he always thought of it as being too unpredictable, and relied more on hard facts. Yet, his imaginative mind found within legends the pleasant idea of magic, and each time they encountered anyone with a great story to tell, he was the one to write it down, ready to tell it back to anyone who would listen.

“Anyone here?” shouted Demanitus to whoever could hear him in the town.

“This place is truly one of a kind, master,” said Xavier. “I don’t feel like we should stay here.”

“It’s only a town,” said Gothel, a bit mocker. “You wouldn’t scared of an abandoned town, wouldn’t you, Xavier?”

“Abandoned or not, I don’t trust the silence that comes from it. You know what they say. It’s only the calm before the storm. We should get going.”

“Gothel’s right, Xavier,” said Demanitus. “Let’s see if people need our help and only after, we’ll go.”

“Right, master,” said Xavier reluctantly. “I’ll set a camp and start a fire.”

“Don’t bother,” said Gothel.

With a flexion of her wrist, she lighted a basket of dried twigs against a wall.

“That was someone’s basket!” exclaimed Xavier.

“Well, that was fire wood. They got a fire, and so do we.”

“Stop bickering, my friends,” stopped them Demanitus. “We all have different ways of doing things, that shouldn’t divide us. Let’s get to what we’re here for, so we can move on.”

“Right, master,” said Xavier.

“Whatever,” said Gothel.

She was the first to venture in the dark streets of the town. Demanitus followed soon, whereas Xavier stayed by the fire, in case its lightning and warmth attracted some of the blizzard’s victims.

And soon, indistinct shadows came, three they were, two seemingly flying then coming down to walk, the other, a very massive one, walked on shadowy tentacles, that soon retracted to legs. Xavier didn’t saw them at first. He was tending to the fire, and from time to time, eyed around, but saw no one. Until he saw the three silhouettes coming his way. He stood up, took his torch with him, and walked to them.

“Hey, there, I’m here to help! Come by the fire,” he shouted, hoping they would hear him.

“Fire… Fire…” the tallest silhouette said with a hiss, “yes, fire is all we need. Come, my disciples, come.”

The first person Xavier saw clearly was the one who had talked. She was a tall woman, wearing a black dress and some sort of lace apron, and she had on her forehead a diadem of pearls, with one pearl-like falling between her eyes. Her two followers were a man and another woman. The woman was the shortest of them three, with a small bend hunchback, resting on a wooden walking stick, her gray hair wore in two bunches on the sides of her head. The man was strangely out of the group, with the way he dressed like some landlord of faraway place, and his well trimmed Van Dyck styled facial hair.

“How can I help you, travelers?” asked Xavier, intrigued by these newcomers who seemed like they weren’t at all from the abandoned town.

“We were passing by” answered the tall woman. “Are you alone in this place?”

“That depends.”

“On what, may I ask?” asked the man, who kept solemnly his hands together as if he was praying.

“I got friends. And I don’t think you’re from here, pals. I’m here to help victims of the storm. Not unharmed passersby.”

“Absolutely perceptive…” commented the short lady. “And is it for that you refuse to help us?”

“I never refuse to help anyone,” corrected Xavier. “I just see that you might not be in need of much help.”

From a nearby alley behind him came the rustle of someone walking in the snow. They all turned around to face the person coming. It was Gothel.

“There’s no one here,” she said before noticing the three newcomers. “Oh, Xavier, I see you’ve found some people.”

“Yes,” said the tallest woman. “As I said to your friend, we were passing by. May we join you?”

“I don’t see why not,” Gothel answered. “But you gotta see that with the boss.”

“The boss? And who might it be?” asked the man.

“Demanitus. It is I,” said the scientist as he arrived as well from another street. “This town is truly abandoned. We shouldn’t stay here longer. If it pleases you, Xavier.”

“Absolutely, master. I’m packing our stuff.”

Xavier used this diversion to get the things he and his friends had left near the fire while they were in the town. Though he had a trustful soul, these newcomers didn’t seem like persons he should trust.

“And so, what are you here for?” asked Demanitus to the travelers.

“We are passing by. The lights from the sky pointed this direction. We came,” explained the tallest woman.

“You are not from around here, I can tell that,” said Demanitus.

“Does everybody here despises strangers?” asked the other woman.

“No, I simply meant, you seem quite… Otherworldly,” precised the scientist. “Care to join us in our journey?”

“We’d love to. You can call me Zhan Tiri. My disciples are Sugracha and Tromus.”

“The more the merrier,” commented Tromus.

“Perfect,” said Demanitus. “Xavier, are we ready to go?”

“Absolutely, master. Here, Gothel, can you take this?” he asked giving her a basket of not yet burned wood.

“Yeah sure, whatever.”

She took the basket, quite reluctantly as she had preferred the part of the journey when she had nothing to carry. But now, they were a team, and teammates helped each other. They hit the road as one, and walked together on the road, toward another town to visit.

As the day went on, the Demanitus team and Zhan Tiri’s spoke a bit. Well, it is true that Xavier did his best to keep silent and observe the other group, though Demanitus and Zhan Tiri exchanged ideas on all that was possible to imagine as subject of discussion. And as for Gothel, she spoke vigorously with Tromus and Sugracha. From what Xavier heard, they talked about magic, and the healer-in-training was captivated by the spells and magical history the two others explained to her. No doubt magic would take a great place in her life.

As for their journey, they knew they were going somewhere, searching. A search for what? Right now, each of them had an idea of where they were going, what they were searching for. But none dared say it aloud.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! New fic it is!  
> Usually, I prefer finishing the writing of a fic before publishing it, because the way I'm writing sometimes causes me to change previous chapters. It's for this reason too that I'll take some time between publishing each chapter, though I'm not sure how often I'll do it. We'll see ^^  
> In this story, I'm so much ahead in the writing, I started telling myself that I should see how the beginning is received before going too far.  
> Feel free to leave kudos and comments, constructive criticism is always a help to progress! 🤗


	2. War causes schism

Four years had passed since the two groups formed one. They had walked a lot, seen kingdoms being created, learn new sciences, and magics, witness wars and revolutions. One of the new kingdoms, Corona, was at war with another newly found military power, Saporia. The group of travelers did its best to ignore these calls each side of the conflict sent them for mighty help. Neutrality was what Demanitus encouraged, as head of the group.

These wars were years long. At last, when a truce was found while the island of Corona was under siege, the group of travelers could walk through the land, under the condition they’d help Corona’s enemy, Saporia. What they were looking for was far in Corona’s lands, and Demanitus could only accept the deal proposed by Saporia’s general, a fierce warrior called Shampanier. She accepted the engineer and his disciples to cross the land, and to rest under her protection in a tower her armies had built in the mainland to watch over the forest that had been partially cut down for war’s needs.

The situation was far from ideal, but they had no choice. What they were looking for was near, they could sense it. Demanitus and Xavier couldn’t as well as the others, but they could sense the changes in their friends demeanor. Zhan Tiri most of all was eager to find this fragment of cosmos fallen four years ago. Sugracha and Tromus shared her impatience. As did Gothel. She had learned magic with them, and to Demanitus and Xavier’s annoyance, was becoming sourer by the second each time they tried to talk about science. She was still a very interested student for a lot of things, but it seemed magic held her whole attention.

The tower Shampanier let them stay in was high, and had only a narrow stairs to mount up to the only room, from where you could see miles away. They shared the room with Saporian soldiers, whose job was to watch the area. This base of operations, quite spartan, was perfect to search on maps the places where they would next search for the cosmos fragments. The nearest was the yellow one, that Demanitus had call Sundrop. And all their hopes were counting on the fact that it hadn’t fall in the sea nearby.

One day, they went on the road, searching the Sundrop. They walked for hours, stopping a lot on their path to inspect the fauna and flora of what remained of the forest.

Magic, as said Zhan Tiri and her disciples, came from every inch of nature that could surround you. Gothel drank her every words with the hunger of insatiable need of knowledge.

Demanitus, nowadays, spent most of his time thinking of the conflicts around them. They had received help from Saporia, but that felt wrong for the engineer. Yes, engineer, as he had let magic away from him through the years, to rely more and more on science.

As for Xavier, he had recollected over the years countless stories from the places they’ve been, as well as knowledge on whatever could be known. He had written on parchments pages about botany, geology, astronomy, as well as on various craft industries artisans he had always thought grandly of, such as farmer, blacksmith, jeweler, baker, painter, architect, and so much more. As he said sometimes of himself, one life couldn’t be enough to let him live these hobbies. So he wrote about them, for one day, these parchments could help others. He was far to realize that he could live by these works during the many years to come.

At last, they arrived on the cliff. The sea in front of them was raging against the rocks. After the high trees of the forest, the fauna was a local one, short and salty of the tides coming and going each day. Yet, on a ledge of rocks, there it was, shining. It looked like a single lily flower, bright yellow, glimmering in the dim light of dusk.

Zhan Tiri was the first to come down near the flower. Her eyes were hypnotized by its beauty, but most of all, the power it contained. She was ready to catch it, to hold it for herself, but a cry behind her made her hold her move.

“Stop right there!” shouted Demanitus.

“And why that?” Zhan Tiri asked, irritated by not having the power she had been searching all those years.

“The Sundrop took the form of a flower. But what if it is really a flower?” explained Demanitus, getting near her on the ledge. “If you take it now, there’s no one to tell its power will come to you or stay in the cut flower, or vanish forever in the ether, and be lost to us. We know where it is. It would be wiser to study it here, and not risk to lose what we took years to find.”

“I see… You may have a point. Now that we know were the Sundrop is, we must know how to harness its power without harming the flower.”

“We may not,” corrected Demanitus. “This power isn’t ours to keep.”

“Dear Demanitus,” hissed Zhan Tiri, “we may do as you say. But fine, if you don’t want to have the power, it’ll be more for me- for us, I meant,” she hastily corrected herself, showing her followers Sugracha, Tromus and Gothel.

"So, what now?” asked Gothel. “Do we search this Moonstone thing or do we stay here?”

“From my calculations, the Moonstone is far away in the Eastern mountains,” said Demanitus. “It might be a months long trip, if not more. From what I’ve learned from the Saporian spies, this land is still controlled by savages hordes. I’m sure we’d prefer to stay here longer and study the Sundrop. It would be safer.”

“When you hold magic,” Zhan Tiri said with a grin, “you don’t need to be kept safe.”

“You don’t want to have the whole Saporian army after you,” reminded her Demanitus. “As of now, we still owe them help for their hospitality. To leave would be treason. And I know you are a very powerful witch, Zhan Tiri, I have no doubt you could face these armies. But as soon as other kingdoms hear of what you do, they will be after you too. This time is a time of war. Whatever power armies can get, they take. No one has ever took this flower before because they ignored its true power, and so do we, right now. We need to study the Sundrop flower, and after that only can we talk about seeking its power and the Moonstone.”

“As much as it pains me to say it, I agree,” finally admitted Zhan Tiri. “We should head back to the tower.”

“Just let me finish my sketch and we can go,” said Xavier, who was, as he said it, sketching the flower on his notebook.

When it was done, he took in a skin a sample of the earth around the flower, and left with his group. Whatever power the Sundrop flower held, maybe some had infused into its surroundings, and Xavier sought to experiment as soon as possible.

They walked back to the tower, way faster than they did at the outward trip, as night had fallen. As such, it wasn’t perilous, but with the war going on, even with the frail truce with Corona, the main danger was to be taken as target by a watch far away whose only thought was to protect his allies and eliminate his enemies, even potential enemies.

The tower was near. They took the stairs at the back. But they were vigilant. The guard usually at the door wasn’t there. They climbed, step after step, and arrived in the main room at the top of the tower. There, bodies of dead Saporian soldiers laid on the floor.

“Come,” said a male voice coming from the room’s window. “I have no ill intention toward you.”

“Who is there?” asked Demanitus, lightning a torch in front of him.

“I am king Herz Der Sonne, ruler of Corona. I have learned of your presence here. I seek your help.”

“Help? In a war?” asked Demanitus. “My disciples and I are neutral in this war.”

“I have heard of such,” admitted Herz Der Sonne. “But I’m not seeking your help to build weapons, nor to kill enemies. Only to help me prevent deaths. As you know, my city, my people are under siege on the island. Long ago, a single tunnel to the mainland had been built under the city. That’s how I came to you. With each passing day, I fear Shampanier will find this tunnel. I need your help, to you who know magic and science, to build more tunnels, to resupply my people before innocents die of hunger. This isn’t a mission of death. It is a mission of peace and life. Would you at least consider?”

“We shall consider,” said Demanitus.

“I shall go with you, your majesty,” said Xavier.

All eyes turned to him.

“I know this choice isn’t an easy one,” said Herz Der Sonne. “Are you sure? Don’t you want to think about it?”

“I am sure,” confirmed Xavier. “My goal has always been to help others. Our task in this group has changed long ago. I learned a lot with you, my friends,” he said to the others. “And I have learned a lot that could help your kingdom, your majesty. If you need someone to design these tunnels, to keep your enemies at bay, I’m your man.”

“Well,” said Herz Der Sonne. “Come, young man. You shall commence your work at once. What is your name?”

“I’m Xavier, your majesty.”

“Xavier. I see you are ready to do a lot of great things.”

Without more conversation, Herz Der Sonne went down the stairs, Xavier on his heels. Before he went away, he only let his group one thing. One of the pages where he had sketched the Sundrop flower.

“Wait,” said Gothel, walking behind them in the stairs with the sketch, “you forgot that.”

At a window mid-high of the tower, Xavier stopped.

“Go on, your majesty, I’m right behind you,” he told Herz Der Sonne, before turning to face Gothel. “Listen, Gothel, I haven’t forgotten anything. I know you’re going to study this Sundrop with the others, and see what it can do. You may need my sketch. My place isn’t here anymore. When I met Demanitus, I wanted to learn science, and the bit of magic he knew. But then, you came, and Zhan Tiri and the others came. I tried to stick with you as much as I could. It was great to learn. But my place isn’t here with you.”

“Xavier…”

“Gothel. I don’t know if you trust Zhan Tiri and her minions, but I don’t. I haven’t slept a whole night in years because I don’t trust them with my life. They’re not from here. I mean, Demanitus said they were otherworldly. Remember? I don’t think they’re here for the same things we are. Enjoy learning magic with them. But don’t be fooled, Gothel. You were a good friend. Difficult to deal with sometimes, I’ll admit it, but we had great times together. Follow your life. This is mine.”

“Don’t you dare leaving without a goodbye.”

“As far as we know, this is war, Gothel. This isn’t goodbye. This is farewell.”

“Xavier!” called Herz Der Sonne down the stairs.

“I’m coming, your majesty!” Xavier answered, before saying one last thing to his friend. “If this war let us live, come see me in Corona. I’ll be waiting,” he said with a smile. “Farewell.”

And he went down the stairs, following the king. Gothel stayed there some time, sitting on the stone steps. After a while, she heard someone coming down from the room. She wiped her eyes, wetter than they should be.

She shouldn’t be sad of Xavier leaving them. She had always been so distant with everyone, with him for years. Why would she regret letting him go? Could she have grown fond of the man? Of his tendency to discover all new things? Of his sick curiosity and helpfulness? This wasn’t right. She had always been as cold as a rock. Colder even, Xavier had once said.

Behind her, she heard clothes shuffling when someone sat on the steps.

“Gothel.” It way Tromus’s voice. “He’s gone. It’s a good thing. There’s only Demanitus against us now. You’re still in with Zhan Tiri for the Sundrop and Moonstone, right? Don’t think to double cross Zhan Tiri. You couldn’t.”

“Tromus, tell me, where are you from?”

“We had this conversation before. We are from far away. You don’t need to know more.”

“If I were truly loyal to Zhan Tiri, would you tell me where you’re really from?” asked Gothel.

“I think I would consider telling you. But as you said, you’d have to be truly loyal to Zhan Tiri before. How do you think of doing this?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” said Gothel, standing up. “Move, you’re in the way.”

“That’s the Gothel I know.”

They went up in the room, Gothel first, Tromus right after her. Demanitus was putting all their stuff in bags, ready to go, while Zhan Tiri and Sugracha watched him, hands on hips, doing quite nothing.

“We must get out of here immediately!” Demanitus shouted. “When Shampanier will see what happened to her men, she’ll rip our life out of us! We must flee. Do something! Am I the only one preoccupied by our survival?”

Zhan Tiri moved her hand in the air, and her bags closed themselves magically.

“You should know better, old man,” she told him. “Come, my friends, let’s not linger here any longer.”

Demanitus took his stuff under his arms, gave Gothel hers, and they went down the stairs, fleeing in the night to who knows where.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! How do you like the story so far?


	3. Leaving the old mentor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enter a Tree... Not any tree, though...  
> And explanations on the origins and powers of the Sundrop and Moonstone...

A week passed. They were on the road. More precisely, they had been on the road, and were now using a cave in the cliff as a safe place to rest. There, they were close to the Sundrop flower, and each day, they could go to it, inspect it, learn from it. From the ledge on the cliff, they could see the island of Corona, with its small buildings and the castle, still mostly in wood, stone wings only began to be thought of.

That was where Xavier lived now. Far from them, and yet, close. He must have started to design the king’s tunnels under the bay. Maybe even started the digging. Who knew? The tunnels weren’t supposed to be visible from where they were, that was the goal.

The study of the flower went great. Zhan Tiri and her disciples had cast few spells on it to see its reaction, and they were all successful. The flower, holding the power of the Sundrop, always regenerated itself. It was only when they tried to burn a petal, that the whole flower burned – causing Demanitus great anger and fear – that the flower took days to come back. But each time, it seemed it took it more and more time. It was decided they should stop, before exhausting the Sundrop’s power, as it was still unknown for a great part of it. And as Demanitus ever reminded them, they couldn’t go back, if taking the flower out of its place could annihilate its power.

He theorized that the Sundrop and Moonstone were complementary to each other. So, destroying one would create an unbalance and the other would take over. But take over what? Demanitus couldn’t know. It could take over an area, or people and corrupt them. And corrupt how? The Sundrop seemed to be benevolent, but then, if the Sundrop were to disappear, what force would take over? None could tell with exactitude, as they only had part of the equation to help them see through that cosmic mystery.

As days went on, Gothel knew her time was near. She had to sever the ties that kept her as a Demanitus pupil if she wanted to learn magic from Zhan Tiri and her disciples, and to finally know where they were from.

They knew things none could know. They had a knowledge that seemed, yes, otherworldly, Demanitus’s words resonated once again in her head. They had appeared not long after the Sundrop and Moonstone came to Earth. That didn’t mean they weren’t there before. But one of the first things Demanitus had told her was about an experience of his about a portal between worlds. Gothel didn’t believed such stories before, but in the four years they had spent together, she had had the time to think about it. And always, she thought it was impossible and a stupid theory. But then, Xavier’s farewell message came back to her, and she found herself thinking once again.

Today was the day. She would let Demanitus and leave with Zhan Tiri as one of her disciples. Yet, she still had a question to answer. How? Demanitus, as always, would go at dawn to the flower. He said the sun’s light could reveal its hidden power. Until now, he had found nothing. That morning, he went on the ledge, and Gothel followed him, ready to learn, but mostly, ready to seize the occasion to leave.

He was sat by the flower, directly on the soil, a sketchbook in hand, and took note of everything he saw. He was writing in a secret language, one only he could decipher. He always did that, he had done it for years, because he never wanted anyone to steal his work. Seems the old man had already been deceived in the past. It would have been the first time, but not the last.

“Ah, Gothel,” he said as he heard her arrive, “come sit with me. I think I might be on to something… See, on the petals, the sun gives some sort of reflection, and I’m sure, it’s some kind of language. We would just have to decipher it, and the Sundrop’s power could, hopefully, be unlocked. It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, yeah it is, master. But, you’ll be discovering it alone. I’m going. We’re all going, in fact.”

“I don’t get it. You wanted to discover the Sundrop. Now we’re here, and you’re leaving? And the others as well? Zhan Tiri has her obsession over the Sundrop’s power, why would she want to leave?”

“This isn’t our place, Demanitus. I long to learn magic. You’ve stopped long ago to study it. Nothing keeps me here any longer. And as for Zhan Tiri, I’m sure she has her reasons to go. She didn’t really explain thoroughly what she had in mind.”

“I have countless books about magic in my old library. It’s not nearby, but I could give you the key if you want.”

“No, keep it. Zhan Tiri, Sugracha and Tromus will teach me. They know magic better than anyone. Better than you ever did.”

“If this is what you really want, I have nothing to say, Gothel. I hope you find what you’re looking for. We all have a part to play, and though I’m not always buying a destiny speech, I’m sure you’ll find yours when the time comes.”

He stood up, and offered a hand to Gothel. They shook hand formally, and she left, only with a bag that contained the little of stuff she had kept over the years. And now, it was done. Demanitus didn’t have any pupil left.

High on the cliff, Zhan Tiri and her disciples were waiting for Gothel to arrive. When she came to them, they didn’t looked back, and went in the forest.

Zhan Tiri led the way. She knew where they were going. Yet, she was very secretive. More than once, Gothel tried to ask her what the destination was. More than once, Tromus and Sugracha stopped her before she could even ask. It was only a month after leaving Corona’s outskirts than Gothel managed to get a mysterious answer.

“We’re looking for a stronghold,” simply explained Zhan Tiri.

She said no more after that.

They were always walking away from the roads, away from the villages, away from caravans and other travelers. Zhan Tiri’s team was a team of loners. And Gothel, newcomer in this group, had chosen to follow them of this path they walked each day. She now had to adapt to this loneliness she had managed to fight and avoid during these last years as a Demanitus disciple.

At last, many months later, they came to a canyon. It was far from the only one they had crossed, but in this one, Zhan Tiri behaved very differently. As she was previously not minding anything on their path, there she was inspecting every corner, every rock, but but importantly, every plant.

And then, one day, behind a high rock wall, she stopped.

“There it is,” she told her disciples with a winner smirk.

“What is “it”?” asked Gothel, still unaware of her plans.

“This,” answered Sugracha, the same stars in her eyes Zhan Tiri had.

“The prophetic Great Tree,” said Tromus.

“The prophetic what now?”

“The Great Tree is said to take its roots midway between the Sundrop and the Moonstone,” explained Tromus. “If it is here, then, we already made half the path to the Moonstone. And we can calculate its exact position. It will soon be ours. And that fool Demanitus won’t be able to do anything,” he exulted.

“We’ll stay here for now,” decided Zhan Tiri.

She walked to the tree. It was still young, as it had started growing with the coming of the cosmic artifacts, yet, it was already many meters high, maybe fifty, if not more. It took a lot of surface on this arid ground, and on a side, there was a breach, like carved through the bark. The inside was hollow, and empty, like a wooden cave.

They spent days, weeks, months and nearly a year there. As promised, Zhan Tiri, Sugracha and Tromus taught magic to Gothel. The celestial origin of the tree, and the magic within, helped her as her mastery of magic grew.

And then, she had to ask them. She had waited nearly a year, thinking maybe they would forget that question that had worried her from the moment she knew them. And days after days, Xavier and Demanitus’s words came back to her mind. They had said Zhan Tiri and her disciples -minions, in Xavier’s own words- were otherworldly. But what could that mean? Gothel wasn’t one to think of other worlds, and though her knowledge of things thought impossible had vastly increased in the last years, she still thought that idea was insane.

One day, at dusk, she went to sit with the others. They had a common place in the Great Tree, where they gathered during most of the day. Away, they had their own rooms built in the wood and carved in the stones, where each would practice and master their magical art and knowledge.

Sugracha was tending to a stew made of various plants growing in the tree. Tromus was setting the table, that was in fact the stomp of a young tree on which a flat rock had been added. Zhan Tiri, as always, was working on her notes about the Sundrop.

The flower was far away now, but, being in the Great Tree meant she had a hand on both the Sundrop and Moonstone at once. She believed that could help her discover the way to harness both their power. Though she despised the idea of Demanitus being right, his theory in which Sundrop and Moonstone had to be kept intact to make sure the world wouldn’t be unbalanced between benevolence and malevolence was the only reasonable theory they all had. Zhan Tiri’s goal had made itself clearer by day. She wanted these powers. For herself. And maybe part of them for her team. They knew she only said that to please them. She wasn’t the sharing type.

Gothel arrived in the room a book in hands. She sat near Zhan Tiri, who didn’t seem to notice her. To get her attention, Gothel flipped her book pages, in a not so subtle way she had learn particularly irritated Zhan Tiri.

“Will you stop it or do I have to make you?”

“I have a question. Answer it, and I’ll stop,” said Gothel.

“Very well. What is your question?”

“Where are you really from?”

“This is not the kind of question I’ll ever answer. Now leave me be, girl.”

“Pardon Zhan Tiri,” said Tromus, approaching the two of them, “our origin conceal things that have been hidden, and that should stay that way. Though, I told you once that if you proved yourself loyal to Zhan Tiri and us, you may know the truth.”

“Loyal?” repeated Zhan Tiri, mocker. “Each of us should only be loyal to ourselves. That’s what saves us. Companionship is a dream, it’s fake. You think you’re loyal to me, Gothel? Retrieve the Sundrop, the Moonstone, and then we’ll discuss it.”

“We don’t have the answers to get to them, Zhan Tiri,” sharply reminded her Gothel. “For all we know, Demanitus could have unlocked their power, and we’re here, away from it, hiding when we should be standing in front of him, and get the answers he discovered!”

“First, to answer your question, Gothel,” said Tromus, no according Zhan Tiri the attention she craved for, “a deal in a deal. We are from far away, and, truth be told, not from this world. As are the Sundrop and Moonstone in fact. Before they collapsed here, we already studied them as they were before, artifacts of cosmos longing to find a host. And to reunite. To become whole once again. In this world, they found hosts. The Sundrop found a flower, the Moonstone, if we trust the name Demanitus gave it, a stone. Though we can’t know for sure until we find it. As long as they’re not reunited, they. Need. A. Host. To let them alone is like letting a poisonous cloud in a room with an open door. It will infuse everywhere and kill on its path. To find them a host is to be assured they are controlled.”

“They’re not here to kill,” said Gothel. “We’ve studied the Sundrop. Its power is a power of life.”

“Yes, it is true. Yet, who, or maybe what, when you let life and death battle, is the one that wins? To help something live is difficult, while to kill it is easy. The Moonstone is that power. Whoever holds the power of both Sundrop and Moonstone holds power over life and death.”

“That’s… godlike. Whoever thinks that must have a serious ego problem.”

“Will you hold that tongue of yours!” shouted Zhan Tiri. “Or maybe you want to be the first to suffer the Moonstone’s power when I find it? Hmm?”

“Calm down, you two,” croaked Sugracha from the other side of the room. “Dinner’s ready.”

“Who do you even think you are, Gothel, to speak like this?” asked Tromus. “You know Zhan Tiri hates to be wronged.”

“Well, I’ll have her know she’s not the only hotheaded woman here.”

Zhan Tiri humphed from where she was sat at the table. That closed the discussion. They ate in silence, while other days they would speak for hours about everything and nothing.

At the end of the meal, Zhan Tiri seemed pensive.

“When we left Corona, you said Demanitus was about to discover a way to harness the Sundrop’s power?” she asked Gothel.

“I’ll only answer if you’re nice to me,” retorted the sorceress-in-training.

“Enough! Answer now or face my wrath!”

“I’ll face your wrath. But you’ll never know the answer.”

Zhan Tiri clutched the side of the table tightly, so much her claw-like nails seemed to tear through the stone.

“Answer me, Gothel! Or this table will soon be your head.”

“Answer or something. Do you always play with menaces?”

“You should answer,” strongly advised Tromus.

Gothel rolled her eyes. If she wanted to be heard, it wouldn’t be by obeying slavishly to Zhan Tiri or anyone. Yet, she knew the witch’s magic was way more powerful than hers, and if there was something she wasn’t, it was suicidal.

“Fine,” she said with a resigned sigh. “Demanitus told me he thought seeing a hidden language on the flower’s petals. He couldn’t decipher it yet, and I already told you that months ago on the road. You should mind my words as much as your friends words. We wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“Don’t lecture me. This isn’t your place.”

“Very well,” said Sugracha. “Now, are we done? Did you even enjoy the meal? If not, feel free to cook next time.”

She stood up and left the room. She always stayed in the shadows, still, she knew how to be heard. Yet, the others stayed indifferent.

Gothel stood up next.

“If you don’t need me, I’ll go sleep. I have a feeling we haven’t finish this conversation, and I’m sure we’ll discuss better with a good-night sleep.”

On those words, she left to her room.

“Tromus,” started Zhan Tiri when she was gone, “tomorrow, remind me to prepare us for a trip back to Corona. I have a feeling too. We left our dear Demanitus with too much sympathy. Time to pay him a visit. A colder visit.”

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“If you’re thinking of how hard a wind can hit a town, then yes.”

“Gothel doesn’t know yet weather magic. I don’t think putting her away from the plan would be convenient after tonight’s talk.”

“She won’t need to know weather magic. She’ll just have to wait her time.”

“Very well… What part of the plan is the diversion?”

Zhan Tiri sighed.

“Thank for the reminder that you’re not our strategist.”

“If you told me the whole plan and not part of it, I’d understand,” retorted Tromus. “I’m on your side, Zhan Tiri, don’t forget it. You’ll regret it.”

He was the next to leave the room. Zhan Tiri stayed alone with her thoughts nearly all night, not going back to her own room. There was a plan in need of preparing.


	4. Bone-chilling reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Corona's lore... Reunions... A blizzard for ages... An incantation... This chapter has a lot in it! Hope you enjoy it!

True to his words, Xavier had help king Herz Der Sonne of Corona to dig the tunnels under the island, under the bay, under the mainland. They had resupplied the city, and no one died of hunger. Yet, one day, an unexpected visitor came through the tunnels. General Shampanier of Saporia had found this secret way through, that wasn’t secret anymore. The story till today is known in all Corona.

Shampanier and Herz Der Sonne battled bravely all night. Till the general discovered in her rival’s journal where he kept the tunnels maps a letter that was hers to read, that was hers to cherish. It must have been a hard battle, to fight the one they loved, when their countries were enemies. Still, this alliance they sealed ended the years-long raging war.

When the war was finally over, the city flourished. The houses built in wood made way for house of cob and stones. And the old castle soon was next in line, with high towers already ready to pierce the high sky. The ferry that once was the only official way to rally the island to the mainland saw a large stone bridge of thirteen arches emerge from the sea.

Between the two kingdoms stood a mountain ranges. It was there the Unification took place. In a valley, the two leaders united to bring peace to their two countries, that soon formed one. Some legends recall of a secret place, a secret and lost lagoon where another unification happened, yet, this one stayed in all minds as a legend. And as for all legends, Xavier of all people enjoyed telling it, writing it to keep the memory of these few instants, stolen from History.

In these high mountains, one peak was right on the old frontier. People knew it as the Corona mountain, event though it was halfway in Corona and halfway in Saporia. This mountains had been used for eons for the ore it kept, and the metal and scarce minerals within. After decades, centuries even, most of the mountains had been dug, it was hollow for most of it.

Demanitus was an ally of Xavier, and Xavier was an ally of Corona. As soon as peace was declared, the engineer had ask the leaders of the newly found country to use this mountain as his laboratory. There, he would have access to a great supply of rocks and minerals, as well as enough place to experiment whatever matter comes in hand, without endangering any civilian, while that could happen in town. Shampanier and Herz Der Sonne accepted gladly. To count the scientist in their ranks would increase Corona’s security while facing threats from afar, even though Demanitus always repeated how neutral he stood in any war.

As for Xavier, he preferred to stay in town. Herz Der Sonne had name him at his court, yet it was more an honorific place than anything as Xavier nearly never put his feet in the castle. He had received for his services a plot of land, small yet sufficient in town. With other townspeople, he helped built the city, and they helped him back building him home. He had a room for everything he liked doing. Most of them were accessible from the street, as he enjoyed the thought of people coming to learn things few knew.

There was a library, where he collected books, scrolls and parchments on everything, a little forge that would grow with each passing years and decades, a garden, which he kept for himself, an observatory up in the attic for which he had added an exterior staircase, and much more. Yet, as much as the house was filled with numerous wonderful rooms, each of them was rather small, and the entire building wasn’t bigger than any other house in the city.

One day, as Xavier was in his forge, making a door knocker for his garden back door, Demanitus came. He sat nearby, waiting for his former disciple to stop his work whenever he judged it possible. After a couple of minutes, Xavier put the white hot metal piece in a water bucket to cool it down, and when the bubbling calmed, he got it out to put it on a table.

“Demanitus, how uncanny it is to find you here,” he said, cleaning his hands on an already dirty towel.

“Uncanny indeed, my friend. I come with grave news. Just remind me… Did I tell you about my dear monkeys?”

“I think you did, yes.”

As strange as it was to have a monkey as pet in this part of the world, Demanitus had found several in the last year. He had got them from a circus that was canceled by royal decision after getting proofs of mistreatment from their handlers. The little simians were now resting under the mountain Demanitus owned.

“I perfected my old device to switch minds,” the engineer said. “It works now. Better, at least. Well, better not spend too much time explaining. As one of my dear simian friends, I found Zhan Tiri and the others. They are in some sort of Great Tree, as they call it.”

“Are they all safe?”

“From what I’ve seen, yes. Though I’m not exactly sure what you mean by “safe”. They were having some very heated argument. Anyway, if I’m here today, Xavier, is because Zhan Tiri is planning to attack Corona.”

“How?”

“That, I’m not sure. She was talking about weather magic, and a storm. But it’s obvious someone like her wouldn’t even trust her own team and reveal her whole plan.”

“Right… Then, what do you need me for then?”

“Last month, we worked on a device to study the weather. I think if we change the plans, it could change the weather. And, knowing Zhan Tiri, she won’t be sending a little drizzle. We have to be prepared, even prepare Herz Der Sonne to evacuate the island if needed.”

“You think this device could change the weather? I don’t think that could work.”

“Maybe not with only science. But coupling science and magic, that could work. I need you to help me revise the plans, and build that machine before Zhan Tiri comes.”

“We’ll need help. If what you say is true, Demanitus, she might very well be on her way as we speak. I’ll ask Herz Der Sonne for help. I’m sure he can spare few men for his kingdom’s safety.”

“We’ll do that. But when Zhan Tiri attacks, if anything goes wrong, I want you to stay here in Corona, Xavier.”

“You want me to stay where she’s targeting? Sounds suicidal,” commented the man, taking a seat next to his former master.

“That’s not what I meant. Zhan Tiri wants me. Attacking Corona is a way to get through me. If she comes to the mountain, and I hope she will, I can’t take any risk. You can’t be at the mountain.”

“I see… I’ll do what I can to help the people. The tunnels are still functional, and ready to protect those they were built to save.”

“Perfect. I’ll come back tomorrow so we can see how we can adapt the device’s plans,” said Demanitus, standing up and ready to go.

“If you have the time, today might be better. I still have an early blueprint of the device. As you said, we can’t take any risk. That means, we have to get to work now.”

He stood up too, and went to the fireplace. There, hidden, a secret opening led to an underground room. Xavier kept there numerous plans, blueprints, and wooden or metal models of complex mechanisms. He got a large rolled paper off a shelf, and opened it on the table.

“Here it is,” he told Demanitus.

“Magnificent… May I use your workshop, Xavier?”

“If you need, master.”

“Stop calling me that. I’ve barely been your teacher. You are my friend. Well, I’ll get to work.”

“Right. I’ll be upstairs if you need me.”

He went up to the forge, and closed the door.

Outside, a cold wind has rose. A passerby was looking at iron chandeliers. He went to her, asking if she needed some advice on the metalwork. Later, a rider came for a set of horseshoes. The day went on this way, as always.

The next day, Demanitus and Xavier were off to the mountain. They had already started to build the weather device, but most of it was still to be brought in place. As promised, Xavier had asked for an audience with king Herz Der Sonne, and he and Shampanier accepted to let the scientists a good fifty soldiers of both their armies, though now they formed only one.

The men, under the command of both their officers as well as Xavier and Demanitus, worked as one and soon, under two weeks, the device was nearly built. Yet, the engineer was restless.

He knew Zhan Tiri was coming. He didn’t know when. He never knew exactly where she was, where that Great Tree was. He had returned there thrice, under the disguise of one of his trusted monkeys. And each time, what he saw was beyond inconceivable.

The Great Tree they thought of as a normal over-grown tree wasn’t that at all. It had a passive power over its surroundings, it was sentient, in its own way. And in it, Zhan Tiri had made her lair. There was a local army, that had tried to attack, but failed. They were hundreds, if not thousands, against only Zhan Tiri, Sugracha, Tromus and Gothel, and of course, the Great Tree itself. Magic was flowing all over the place, yet, even through a monkey’s eyes and sensitivity, Demanitus sensed the magic was a corrupted one. One he could distinguish among all. Zhan Tiri’s magic.

Parallelly to building the device, he asked Xavier’s help to forge a spear. One that could pierce through the Tree’s magic defenses and Zhan Tiri’s as well. One that could force the corrupted team to move in the light, and reveal themselves, so they could be dealt with, once and for all.

The final step of building the device under the mountain came. Demanitus had to do it, even with his mind taken by these latter discoveries. Only he knew magic enough to cast a spell in the machine.

Then, one day, the weather went colder and colder with each passing hour. They knew the time was near. Demanitus stayed in the mountain with his device, hoping it would work, and was still working on a spell to cast on the spearhead he had built against the Great Tree’s heart. As it was a tree, it didn’t really had a heart, yet, it had a core, a source of magic, and this would be the target of the spear.

Xavier had to go back to Corona, and ensure everyone to safety through the tunnels if needed. Herz Der Sonne and Shampanier, as rulers, were already in a castle on the mainland, away from where the incoming storm was supposed to hit.

Xavier closed his library, all entrances to his building. When he had only the forge left, he turned around, only to see a hooded figure behind him.

“You should get to the tunnels. The weather’s bad,” he told the person.

The hooded figure didn’t answer.

“May… I help you?” he asked, unable to know who was hiding.

“You may, Xavier,” answered a voice he perfectly recognized.

“Gothel! What… have you decided to leave Zhan Tiri’s madness? Demanitus isn’t here right now, but you should come inside, a big storm’s coming.”

“I know,” she simply said, taking away her dark hood and walking into the forge.

Xavier couldn’t help but notice her hair. It wasn’t raven black as before, it was slowly becoming salt-and-pepper. Yet, only a year had passed since he last saw her. It wasn’t a normal aging.

“I see you’ve been under a lot of stress… This isn’t healthy. You should leave Zhan Tiri. I’m sure Demanitus will accept you back.”

“And I see you haven’t aged at all. I’m here for the Sundrop. Has Demanitus deciphered the petal’s mystery, or is it too early?”

“He has. Who do you work for, Gothel? Yourself, or Zhan Tiri? Choose wisely.”

She didn’t answer, just let an amused humph fill the room.

“We were very much alike, you and I… Yet, our paths went different ways… This young look you bear, is it the Sundrop? You know how to harness its power?”

“I won’t tell anything until I know who I’m actually talking to.”

“You’re talking to me.”

“Yes, Gothel… But, in the end, who will know my answer? You, or Zhan Tiri? You perfectly know I won’t tell anything if there’s any chance that witch will know about the Sundrop.”

“Who said you needed to talk?”

She gently put her hand above his on the table. But, as a learner of magic, this wasn’t an innocuous act. In a matter of few seconds, and Xavier fell, breathless yet alive on the floor of his forge, his other hand to his throat, out of air. She released her hold, and went to move on. She knew there must be a secret passage somewhere. He always repeated how he loved secret things, passages, languages and all, when they were both still in the same team. There, she found it near the fireplace. A mark in the wood was clearly visible, like rubbed by many uses. She went in, only minding a quick look to Xavier on the floor behind her.

“I’m sorry, dear friend.”

She didn’t have time to lose. She went down the stairs, a magical flame in her palm, and searched the room. On the main table, a pile of torn scrolls showed various plans and models for many instruments, every-day objects Xavier have been working on. But that’s wasn’t what Gothel was after. She went deeper in the room, it seemed to extend away under the house, maybe under other houses of the street even. It formed a narrow corridor, lighted by a system of streamlets of oil running on the walls. She didn’t light it and continued her path with only her flame in hand.

Away, from the room she arrived, she could hear the wind engulfing in the workshop. Cold fell suddenly. Xavier was still out there. Cursing on the time she was about to lose, Gothel ran out and carried him as well as possible inside, before closing the door.

“You… shouldn’t… do this…” he said, breathlessly.

“Shut up, I know what I have to do. Don’t try anything foolish, I don’t want to hurt you.”

He couldn’t answer, still trying to get his breath back. She went back in the corridor, with a bigger flame in hand, and looked at the various doors in the walls. Most of them were stocks. But one had on its wood a hooded figure with a metal eye-patch. Demanitus. He had gained the eye-patch after being attacked by thieves, on the four years they spent on the roads, before the group was broken from the inside.

She glared at the door, and opened it, decided to do what she had to do. It was dark, there was no light inside. With her dim flame, she discovered other scrolls, but these were way more interesting than the others in the workshop. She took one and read. The language was unknown to her, but part of it was translated. There was a pile on unused papers. On them, Gothel hastily copied the only text that was translated. She read it mumbling, while scribbling in a hurry.

“Flower, gleam and glow. Let your power shine. Make the clock reverse. Bring back what once was mine. Heal was has been hurt. Change the fate designed. Save what has been lost. Bring back what once was mine… What is the meaning of this?!”

“It’s the incantation that releases the Sundrop’s power,” explained Xavier.

He had arrive slowly, on his knees and arms, still out-of-breath.

“I… don’t know what… you did to me… Can… you undo it?”

“Very well… But just because I can’t bear to let you suffer, Xavier…”

She put her hand on his again, and his breath returned as fast as it left.

“Save me your fake empathy, Gothel. This isn’t you,” he said as soon as he was standing up again, his breath back to normal.

“We’re much alike than you think. Save from Demanitus, we were the only truly humans in the group. We should stand together. You know how to harness the Sundrop. We should stand against Zhan Tiri. There’s a rematch I’ve been waiting for.”

“So you’ve talked to them. And…?”

“They really are from another world.”

“And if you think to stand up to Zhan Tiri, I can but encourage you. But my place is here,” he said with a sigh. “You have the Sundrop incantation. Till you know how it works, it’s of no use. Please, leave now. And never return.”

“I’ll leave. But the storm is worsening.”

“And whose fault is that?” he asked, though he knew the answer.

“Zhan Tiri,” Gothel said with disgust.

“I’m sure I’ll regret it but, maybe you should stay here for the night. Either for you or Zhan Tiri, if you die frozen in the storm, that won’t do good to anyone.”

“You would accept? Really? I nearly killed you only minutes ago,” she sharply reminded him.

“I guess I still trust you enough for not actually killing me. Only you will tell if that’s the right choice to make.”

He left the corridor, and went up to the main rooms of the house, rooms that were private. Outside, the storm was still raging. Piles of snow covered the streets and houses over meters, and it was a miracles some buildings were still up. Xavier sighed at this regrettable sight, and sat in his armchair, taking a book from his own library. In front of him, he could still see his winter garden, secured under heavy glass he had personally crafted to be particularly solid. What was growing in it was to be protected at all cost.

Gothel had copied as much as possible the scroll Demanitus had in his study, yet, even he didn’t finish translating. She tried to copy the rest of the incantations, but the language was one she couldn’t understand, as was the alphabet, and each symbol seemed to look like the other, and at the same time, very different. Finally, she went in the room Xavier was in, after spending some time alone to think in the basement. There, she saw the winter garden.

“What is this plant?” she asked, looking at a blooming flower.

“It’s a narcissus. I got it from a merchant last year. Beautiful, isn’t it?”

“It shouldn’t be blooming. We’re in the middle of winter.”

“It’s too early, I agree. Before you ask, the flower is a normal one.”

“Then, how?”

“The earth I planted it in. It’s the soil I took around the Sundrop’s flower. It must have some of the Sundrop’s power. And I’m sure you’ll like this one…” he said with a happy child grin, while standing up to walk to the flower.

He knelt next to it, and started reciting the Sundrop incantation. And the flower bloomed even more, gently glowing and growing of few centimeters. When Xavier stopped the incantation, the glowing stopped as well. He turned around to face Gothel.

She was stunned by what she just saw and heard. Astonishment was the only thing her eyes let know of what she was thinking. The incantation was real. The Sundrop’s power was real. And she knew that thanks to an old friend, while Zhan Tiri was trying to get the answers about the Sundrop and Moonstone by force from Demanitus. Truly, the demon’s strategy wasn’t the right one.

“Xavier, as soon as I can, I’ll leave. I have a score to settle with Zhan Tiri.”

“Before that, look at your hair.”

She turned around, looking for a mirror. There was one on the wall. Gothel approached, and gasped as the sight. Her hair was back in its raven black youth.

“The Sundrop’s power is somehow activated by the incantation,” explained Xavier, appearing behind her in the mirror. “Whenever I recite it to the flower, and the earth around, the burns I got from the forge, my failing eyesight, my hearing damaged by the constant hammering, all is restored.”

“It works like a cutting? That’s interesting. But… It’s only portion of the Sundrop’s power. To recite it to the real Sundrop on the cliff must grant…”

“Eternal youth?” guessed Xavier, pensive. “Demanitus thinks so. But there’s no way we’d try. If that guess is true, well, the old man thinks it absolutely unethical. It’s cheating death. And I’m with him on that. I’d rather enjoy a simple expanded lifespan by only using plants growing in the earth I got from there than to go to the flower itself.”

“You think I didn’t see the monkeys at the Great Tree? I knew it was him. Don’t try to speak of ethic and Demanitus in the same sentence.”

“Alas, yes, I agree on that,” he sighed. “He saved these poor beasts from a circus, and he’s nearly ready to bring them to their deaths by using them as spies.”

He paused a moment, walking around the room to look to the storm for a window without snow. The piles of freezing white water were as high as buildings now. Only a burst of wind would make a pile fall from a roof and shut the window’s sight, and bring the house into complete obscurity.

“But what’s important to me, Gothel,” he said, “is that you realizes that you’re better off without Zhan Tiri. Go, leave her. Like you left Demanitus. He told me. You don’t need that demon. Find your own path. I don’t care what you do with the magic she gave you, with the incantation I showed you. I know there’s good in you. Remember. When I found you in the avalanche, you were training to be a healer. Leave Zhan Tiri, and go heal people. I trust you. Don’t prove me wrong. Deep inside, you’re a good person, and you know it.”

She didn’t answer right away. Instead, she kept looking at her reflection in the mirror. That hair, these wrinkles she had gained from -Xavier was right- all the stress endured arguing with or against Zhan Tiri, or even Tromus or Sugracha sometimes, all that had hardened her spirit, and she wasn’t herself anymore. But now, the Sundrop, the incantation, all that could be a game changer. She would be back in the ring in no time. And Zhan Tiri would soon regret sending her away to find answers she would squeeze out of Demanitus by herself.

Yes, Gothel would have her revenge. And, she would be a healer, for a long time to come…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might publish the next chapters and parts of this story a bit slower than these four first chapters... I kind of hit a point in the writing where it's not exactly writer's block, but the plot won't write itself as easily as the beginning sooooo, it's slower ^^'  
> But I still have a handful of chapters before reaching the point I am at now, so there shouldn't be any hiatus, I hope.
> 
> What to expect from the next chapters and parts of this story? Well, well, do I tell, or do I keep the secret? Ah! I'll tell a thing or two!  
> It'll be happening during the canon's time... new characters... new relationships... canon divergence... magic... 👀  
> Stay tuned!


	5. Rematches worth waiting for

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ready? Steady? Fight!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for battle, blood, broken bones.
> 
> I used parts of the dialogues from the flashback Demanitus VS Zhan Tiri from Plus Est En Vous. I do not own this part of the text.

Only three days after the blizzard was over, Gothel left Corona, as the townspeople came back to their home. Most of the houses had suffered the hard wind, and the freezing cold. There would be a lot to rebuild now that this threat was partially over.

On the morrow right after the blizzard, Demanitus was back in town. He was hurt, not badly, yet he was hurt nonetheless. He recalled to Xavier, and Gothel as she was still there at the time, what had happened at his mountain. As he had hoped, Zhan Tiri had came.

They had tried to talk. Through spells and attacks. And then, after fighting bravely during what seemed like hours, Demanitus was about to lose. Zhan Tiri had try to get the answers, all he had found about the Sundrop, all he had discovered while she was away in the Great Tree. He was forced to tell her about the incantation, though he managed, through great efforts, to not let a word of it spill. She had gave him a chance, for them to search the Moonstone together, to share it with an equally clever mind. And he had refused, for he knew that ploy would only be a lie. Finally, at the break of letting her win, he had activated the device that would counter the storm. It didn’t gave him more strength to battle, though he managed, using her surprise, to push her out of the mountain, on the brink of falling next to a waterfall.

“I will find a way, Demanitus! This is far from over! We will find the powers of the Sundrop and Moonstone! Even if you do nothing to help us, we’ll find it! I promise you!” she had shouted to him, nearly falling over the ridge.

And then, she fell backward. Demanitus screamed and jumped to get her. But he was too late. Though she was his enemy, one would call them nemesis in the far future, he wasn’t one to let anyone die this cruel way. Yet, he knew she wouldn’t have let herself fall if she hadn’t a plan. She would come back. Yes, she would.

When Demanitus had finished telling Xavier and Gothel the story of what had happened, he stood up, and went to the narcissus in the winter garden. There, he took from inside his cloak one of his monkeys, who had found himself in the middle of the fire. He placed him on the earth, and recited the incantation. And soon, as the earth and flower glowed and grew calmly the frail little simian breathed again.

“Oh, Vigor, welcome back, I’m sorry you were there to see all that,” he said with a teary voice to the monkey as he climbed back on Demanitus’s shoulder. “Come, Xavier,” he said to his friend, “I will need your help to defeat Zhan Tiri next time we battle. I can’t let her hurt anyone else. The Sundrop might not be always there for us.”

“Do you have any plan?” asked Xavier.

“Yes, I found one in an old grimoire. I didn’t think it could be of any use, but I think we can find a way to make it work. But we have to make it fast. Every minute is a minute when Zhan Tiri is plotting against us.”

“What about me?” asked Gothel, who had stayed away from the conversation until now.

“Go back to Zhan Tiri,” told her Demanitus without thinking. “As long as she’s persuaded you’re still on her side, that buys us time.”

“I won’t double-cross her for you,” firmly reminded them Gothel.

“Then leave now,” said Xavier. “Right now, if you’re not with us, Gothel, you might as well be against us. Leave. Please. Before we make you.”

She tried to answer, but the words were struck in her throat. He was right. She had to get a revenge over Zhan Tiri, but as long as she wasn’t clearly against her, Demanitus and Xavier has all the reasons in the world to not trust her. So, she left the house, not saying goodbye nor trying to get on their team. They wanted her out. Well, she would leave. Simple as that.

A client for the forge was out, with a horse. She turned around a bit, innocently fiddling with a thing or two in the shop, then grabbed the reins, stole the steed, and ran, jumping on the horse’s back while on a trot. She heard the shouts of the man behind her, vanishing in the air as she went further and further away.

She went on a gallop, straight to the cliff. If Demanitus and Xavier were to build a machine against Zhan Tiri, there was no reason she would face the demon without getting any power up of her own prior the battle.

The flower was still there. A bright yellow lily flower, alone on its ledge on the cliff. It could take a bad sea storm, and the ledge would fall. Or maybe, it was its power keeping the ledge in place for so long.

Gothel walked, one step at a time, carefully, till she reached the flower. She got the copied scroll out of her bag, and read the incantation.

“Flower, gleam and glow-”

The flower started emitting a dim yellow light.

“-Let your power shine-”

What looked like pollen flew above the petals.

“-Make the clock reverse-”

Gothel saw the locks of hair fallen in front of her eyes gaining a brighter black color.

“-Bring back what once was mine-”

She felt in her hand the warmth of youth flowing through her arms.

“-Heal what has been hurt-”

Cracks on her hands caused by the cold of the blizzard filled themselves with newly healed skin.

“-Change the fate design-”

As she closed her eyes, she saw things never in her whole life she would have seen. Was it the future? A future? Her own? One of her own?

“-Save what has been lost-”

In the visions, she saw herself, centuries later, as young as ever.

“-Bring back what once was mine-”

Yes, it was her, she didn’t recognize the city after the bridge, it was too far away, but she was there on the same ledge, with the same flower, and she still had the power of the Sundrop to keep her young.

“-What once was mine.”

The vision suddenly changed. She wasn’t young anymore. Oldness was rushing after her, and she was falling to her doom.

She opened her eyes and gasped. In front of her, she was looking at the flower. It wasn’t glowing anymore. But there was something in front of it. A residual image of her visions. It was her, but not old nor young, just of an average age, yet getting older by the second. And then, in her ears, she could hear herself singing the Sundrop incantation, and gaining once again her youth in the residual vision. Was this her future?

She smirked at the thought. If she kept the Sundrop for herself, Zhan Tiri couldn’t find it. She would protect the Flower, and in return, the Flower would protect her from the demon. That was a future she could deal with. But right now, she had to get back to the Great Tree. She felt rejuvenated. It felt good to be young. That would teach a good lesson to Zhan Tiri. Gothel was more than ready to face her.

She went back to her stolen horse, and set course for the Great Tree. The first time she went there with the team, it took them months. When Zhan Tiri had told her to infiltrate Corona and get answers on the Sundrop, she had sent Gothel through a spell. The road would be a long one. Enough time for Zhan Tiri to plan anything, enough time for Demanitus and Xavier to build a machine against the demon.

The road back was a long one. Yet, when Gothel finally arrived at the Great Tree, it seemed no day had passed. As she listened to the others talking as always, it was about her, and it was as if the blizzard was just days ago. She stayed away for a while, waiting for the perfect moment. What she learned by just listening to them was way better than just confronting Zhan Tiri from the front.

“She’s not back,” was saying Zhan Tiri, again and again.

“Of course, she’s not!” shouted Tromus. “You sent her get Demanitus’s work right in the middle of a deadly storm! She either preferred to stay in Corona or she died on the way back! No one could have survived your cursed blizzard!”

“She was tasked to retrieve the incantations! She betrayed us!”

“Like we told her how to betray Demanitus a long time ago,” sighed Tromus, tired of repeating himself. “You gave her the task to get the only thing that would give you power, and she kept it for herself. How could you not have thought of that? And there I thought I’ve been told I wasn’t the strategist here!”

“Quiet, you two!” croaked Sugracha. “She might still come back after all… You want her to arrive and hear that discussion of yours? So quiet!”

“You’re not one to tell me how to behave, Sugracha,” hissed Zhan Tiri. “Know your place. We’ll find the Moonstone. With the Great Tree’s location, we can know where it is. We’ll harness its power, one way or another.”

“This is insane!” shouted Tromus. “Even Demanitus said the incantations were the only way when you confronted him! Did you even listen to him?”

“She was too busy not dying,” commented Sugracha in a whisper.

“You weren’t there, Tromus. Demanitus was lying. He had to be lying. I tried to get him to join us. He refused. But there can’t be only one way to get these powers. There has to be another way. The incantations might even be fake!”

When she heard that, Gothel laughed silently from where she was hiding. The incantations were real. Or else she wouldn’t have the power and conviction to get back to the Great Tree. She crawled back behind a rock getting out of the ground.

“Even if there were another way,” said Tromus, “who’s to tell what will happen to you? The Sundrop is life, so all logic points to tell the Moonstone is death. You want that? We’ll follow you, as always, but we won’t be able to ensure your safety.”

“Who cares about safety when you have power?” sharply retorted Zhan Tiri.

“That’s funny. I was just thinking the same thing,” said Gothel, finally getting out of her hidden place.

“Ah! Look what the cat dragged in!” clammed Zhan Tiri, coming to her.

Gothel wanted to scream to her to stay away, but the words made no sound. Instead, she pulled her arms in front of her, defensively, and a burst of wind swept Zhan Tiri over meters. Tromus and Sugracha went out of the way in a hurry. Finally things were getting interesting.

Gothel, reassured by her victorious first round, was assured to win once again. As Zhan Tiri got up massaging her head that had hit a rock, she jumped forward on her opponent. Gothel barely had the time to step back and avoid her.

“You look different,” the demon told her. “Younger, am I right? You found the Sundrop. Give me the incantation.”

“Only when you’ll have deserved it!”

She sent a bright and wild flame, stronge and untamed. It made stones crack and falling in two. Yet, it didn’t impress Zhan Tiri.

“You really think you can beat me?”

“You know nothing about me, Zhan Tiri! I’ll prove you you were wrong to send me away! I deserve to be taken seriously! I might not be like you, but I’m more than you three as one!”

“Oh dear. How pleasing…”

Zhant Tiri took a few steps away from Gothel, who for a moment thought she’d win. But Zhan Tiri wasn’t a demon for nothing. As she went back, she grew, and her so pale skin darkened, lava-like. From the buns of mauve hair she wore on the sides on her head emerged two wide curly horns. Fangs appeared in place of teeth, and most of all, what were her legs turned into squid-like tentacles.

Gothel gasped at the sight. It couldn’t be. No, she had to be dreaming. But she wasn’t.

“Your ego will fail you,” said Zhan Tiri, coming to her, shadowing her. “That’s the thing with over-proud people. They’re pitifully predictable. You thought I didn’t knew you’d come after all? Think again!”

In her wide clawed hand, she grabbed Gothel, and lifted her in front of her eyes.

“See my face. It’s not the face of defeat. You’ll tell me all I need to know about the Sundrop.”

“Never!”

“Then I’ll have to go back to Corona ask Demanitus. Or maybe this young Xavier? No matter. Where I’ll go, none shall see the light again. Tell me the incantation, Gothel, and I might think about sparing your life.”

“If you know the incantation, you’ll never leave anyone in peace!” retorted Gothel, spitting to Zhan Tiri’s face.

“Insolent child! You lost before you even began, girl.”

She closed even more her fist, and bones started to crack. The sound filled the room. Before Gothel could pass out, Zhan Tiri released her hold.

“Care to deliver the incantation now? You’re nothing. I’ll find it myself.”

“You tried once, and you failed!” Gothel spat again, blood this time.

Zhan Tiri had had enough of this foolishness. She threw Gothel over the place, and she landed away, before rolling twice and stop against a rock.

“You monster!” shouted Tromus before Sugracha could as well shout her surprise. “You could have killed her!”

“And then what? You care? Think again who you stand with, Tromus, think wisely. You wouldn’t want to end up like her, wouldn’t you?”

“I… no, Zhan Tiri, of course not.”

“Wise choice,” the demon said to her disciple, while coming back to her human form.

She didn’t go Gothel’s way. She didn’t care anymore about her. She had been a pawn, and the pawn had lost.

Away, where Gothel had fallen, the gray ground of stone was red of her blood slowing leaving her. She was wounded on her side, and there was no doubt, at least one rib was broken. She coughed, and it was blood.

“Psst!”

The sound was weak. She barely heard it.

“Psst! Gothel! Here!”

She lifted her head a little, just so it wouldn’t hurt too much.

“Gothel. I’m getting you out of here.”

“What…?”

Her vision was blurry, but the voice was unmistakably Xavier’s. If he was there, then Demanitus was too. Oh, the Great Tree had been a formidable place to stay. This would certainly be its last day.

“Demanitus is near,” she could hear him say. “He sent me to scout ahead. He’s coming by the bottom of the tree.”

“Looking for the Tree’s core?” managed to say Gothel, blood still dripping out of her mouth at each word.

“I think so. Do you think you can move?”

“If you want me to die, yes.”

“Right. You remember the incantation?”

She nodded. He started reciting, and, as well as she could, she joined him in a whisper. Zhan Tiri was away in the room, but she was still nearby. They had to be careful.

“Flower gleam and glow… Let your power shine…”

The Sundrop wasn’t there with them, and the incantation’s inherent power was very faint. But within the Great Tree, it was enough, if only to stop the bleeding. That was what Xavier was waiting for to pull Gothel into safety behind the rocks.

The ground moved. Tremors resonated through the wood.

“He’s here,” said Xavier, and Gothel knew he was talking about Demanitus. “We have to go.”

“Need to stay.”

“You’re hurt. Only the Sundrop could heal you. I’m bringing you to our cart. That’s the least I can do.”

“But why? I left you, I refused to stick with Demanitus and you, and I’m barely dead because of my own dumb pride!”

“Because you’re a friend, Gothel. If I abandoned you in these times of need, that’d make me no better than Zhan Tiri. Do you think you can walk?”

“I can try.”

He helped her get on her feet, and they walked, as well as they could. Another tremor shook the ground and they heard rocks fall behind them. They had to get out. Xavier recited the incantation once more, hoping it would help Gothel to hurry. And that was then she saw a glow coming from his bag.

“You took the Sundrop flower?” she asked, surprise and anger in her voice.

“No,” he answered. “Just a new narcissus. The old one gave its seeds. The one I have in my bag is from this year. I took it from the earth before leaving Corona. I feared we might need a bit of the Sundrop’s power. And it seemed my fear was right. I wasn’t sure the magic would still be there, though.”

A third shake came from the bottom of the Great Tree. They hurried as much as they could, Gothel’s wound slowly, too slowly healing with the emanating Sundrop’s power Xavier carried.

From a breach in the Tree’s bark, Zhan Tiri emerged. She saw Gothel and Xavier leaving, but that was the least of her problems right now. Something wasn’t right. She went down on a cornice near the Great Tree’s main entrance. The rocks the Tree was growing around had been carved way before the Tree even grew there. She looked around, ready for anything.

Then, she heard sounds of wheels on grass. She readied herself of battle. Tromus and Sugracha arrived behind her, ready to assist as always. Zhan Tiri first, they walked toward the sound. What they found was strange. There was no one. Just a large wooden wheel, connected to a lever. And then, from behind the wheel appeared Demanitus.

“Why am I not surprised?” asked Zhan Tiri in a shout to her nemesis.

“I come to give you a last warning, Zhan Tiri,” answered Demanitus, readying himself near the lever.

On his shoulder, his little monkey was sat, looking around warily.

“A warning?” she repeated with a laugh. “You don’t know what you’re dealing with, Demanitus!”

“And so do you! Give up this foolish quest for power!”

“This quest for the Sundrop and Monstone could be both of ours!”

“It was,” admitted Demanitus, “until you made it about something darker. You made it all about gaining power for yourself! You turned your back on what was right!”

Tromus and Sugracha exchanged a look. Demanitus wasn’t wrong. They knew Zhan Tiri’s purpose. Yet, there was still a gap between knowing it and realizing it to the point of taking another path than the demon’s.

“And you turned your back on me!” shouted Zhan Tiri.

Sugracha couldn’t hide a laughing smirk. Demanitus had done nothing. Zhan Tiri had left. Yet, the words seemed to instill doubt in the engineer’s eyes.

“As long as I live, I will never stop until I have that power!”

Zhan Tiri’s disciples stood their ground with cautions. Demanitus’s monkey had jumped from his shoulder. Something was about to happen. Yet, they knew not what.

“I know,” simply whispered Demanitus in a way they barely heard it.

With all the conviction in the world, he pushed the lever he had in hand. The wheel by his side activated. From it, all three otherworldly creatures recognized appearing a portal. To where? Only Demanitus knew. The maelstrom was strong, pulling them toward the portal. They couldn’t resist the force. Leaves and twigs, stones and pebbles went next. Tromus couldn’t hold his place. The wind gushing through the portal sent him inside with a scream of agony. Sugracha went next, able to maintain her position a bit longer, but not enough to still stay on the ground. Zhan Tiri. She was the last one standing.

“Give up, Zhan Tiri, give up,” pleaded Demanitus in a whisper she couldn’t hear.

Finally, the wind was stronger than her. She was thrown into the portal by the brutality of the whirlwind, yet for seconds, she blocked her exile, grabbing the wheel’s wood.

“This is far from over! I will have that power! And when I do, I will destroy you, and your precious Corona you care so much about! I promise you!”

She couldn’t hold longer. Zhan Tiri was finally gone.

Demanitus fell on his knees, beaten. His little monkey came back to him, having managed to still himself to a tree.

“I had no choice, Vigor,” he told the little simian. “I had to send her… to the Lost Realm.”

He stood up again, vacillating. He still had a work to do.

From behind the wheel, he took a spear. He had asked Xavier to build it, and he had cast a spell that could, if all was to work out fine, neutralize the corrupted magic Zhan Tiri had instilled in the Great Tree. With the spear, Demanitus dislodged a set of rocks upper on the tree’s side, and let them fall on the portal’s device. As an inventor, it was painful to watch, but as a man who had seen first hand at his mountain the evil Zhan Tiri was able to unleash by herself, he would never let her get to the cosmic artifacts. And for the plans that helped build the device, he would need to take them to his tomb. No one should ever be able to replicate the wheel and the portal. Or else, the world as he was trying to protect it was as good as doomed.

Now all he had to do was to fight his way through the Great Tree till he reached the far bottom of it in the earth. There, he would let the spell in the spear purge the Tree, or even kill it, if that would mean all magic would be gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: the epilogue of this pre-canon part.  
> The next part will still take place before the canon, but it will join the time of the canon in the end.


	6. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The epilogue of this long introduction... It will follow the story where we left it in the last chapter and spans, well, a bunch of time...

Demanitus had destroyed the inner magic of the Great Tree. It was dying. It would be dying for centuries. The spear in its core down the Earth sealed away the corruption Zhan Tiri had put there. The lands all around the Great Tree would now become lands of riders and travelers, lands where no kingdom would find a perfect place, nor village prosper forever. Because of the stories about the Tree’s powers and supposed malevolence – stories that would become legends – no sane spirited voyager dared approach the Tree too close, nor for too long. A land of desolation was all that was left around the Tree, and the lands went back to the wild they were robbed from from the moment the Tree’s seed fell from the cosmos with the Sundrop and Moonstone.

However, on the Moonstone’s side of the Great Tree, a new kingdom had taken root. Few would know this kingdom, except for those living in it. Before the Moonstone’s arrival, there were lands of agriculture and fishing, hunting and warring. There was always a battle, and local lords wars going on.

The Moonstone changed all that. When it came to Earth, it fell against the side of a dark mountain. And soon, as if it sensed the danger around, the Moonstone created a barrier around itself, a physical protection. Black rocks started to emerge from the earth, and cover everything on their path, destroying whoever tried to possess it. It only stopped when a warrior won and vanquished the others, and took power as ruler of these lands. This queen would build around the Moonstone a castle, and use the black rocks as a new symbol of power. To three shards of rocks, she added a circle, showing the unity with the other lords, unity she had gained where others had fallen in battle trying to get it. From this days forward, the coalition of lords formed a kingdom, the Dark Kingdom.

Warriors soon swore an oath to the Dark kings and queens to protect the Moonstone from whoever would search to possess it, as the Moonstone itself did on its own. For years and now centuries, they protected the Dark Kingdom as its elite force. Few were the ones who survived fighting them. These soldiers knew themselves as the Brotherhood, and all sported on their right hand the kingdom’s symbol, the three lines of black rocks linked by the circle.

Over the years, few soldiers of this elite force moved to the late Great Tree, now no more than an empty husk of the grandeur that once radiated around it. Inside the Tree, they built a training place for those who would try to become members of the guard of the Dark Kingdom. Alas, the idea that pleased the royals of the kingdom soon failed, and the Great Tree was once more abandoned. Behind them, they left bas-reliefs and statues that were supposed to welcome the potential future members of the Brotherhood into their training area. And so, nature conquered once more the Great Tree.

In Corona, things weren’t that dark. The kingdom, with its location by the sea, was a centerpiece of trade. Carts and ships came from the mainland, from far away from the sea. But, this flourishing trading soon came to a point where too much goods came, and with an official business often comes unofficial businesses. The then royals were forced to build a wall to check the traffics in and out of their kingdom. Most were accepted, other ended in jail or were simply refused the passage. After few years, on the kingdom’s side of the wall appeared new villages. This newly-founded custom that was the wall would stay for decades, even when the kingdom didn’t need it anymore. The Corona wall, as it was known, served as a reminder of the power of the kingdom, and from the chemin de ronde one could see the horizon very, very far away, so much far away it would take days by horse to get to the furthest point seen from the border.

This wall divided the territory. The mountains Demanitus had built his devices and laboratory in were outside the walls. He had built his laboratory, that would become his tomb, in another mountain, away, as to not drive too much attention to the weather device. It had to be kept hidden, in case someone would want to alter the sometimes already unstable weather. It was because of that he filled the main entrance from the valley by provoking a landslide. Xavier insisted they built a secondary access from the tunnels linked to Corona’s capital. From now on, it was the only way to get to the Demanitus device.

Now that neither Zhan Tiri nor her acolytes threatened the Sundrop and Moonstone’s power, Demanitus chose to leave the cosmic artifacts in peace. The days right after he, Xavier and Gothel were back from the Great Tree, he went to study other fields of researches. He knew the Sundrop was used to heal Gothel’s wounds, and though he didn’t fully accept the idea, he was glad she seemed to have rejected the demon’s magic.

The engineer passed away years later, and he died as he always thought he would. Doing his precious work, with his dear simian friends by his side. He was alone when it happened. When Xavier found him, his face was peaceful. He was gone, and had live a happy life, after all that had happened during difficult years. Xavier informed the then king, Herz Der Sonne and Shampanier’s second heir, their first-born having drowned in a sailing accident in his youth. The king ordered for Demanitus funerals of a near-royal importance. Xavier reminded him how much Demanitus preferred to stay away from the lights, so the king accepted to grant him a simple funeral, directly at his tomb. Though, Xavier couldn’t do anything when the king gave Demanitus the posthumous rank of Lord.

In the laboratory turned tomb, they had installed a miniature device similar to the weather device. This other machine was able to create a semi-tropical atmosphere within the walls of the mountain, for the monkeys would live there, and needed to live with a proper climate.

As for Xavier, he still lived in Corona. He still had the cutting of Sundrop power. It was faint. It was in the earth he cared for days after days, infusing in the plants he liked to eat as treats now and then. And even faint, this power was keeping him young and healthy. He was many decades old now, and should have for a long time have seen his hair graying or his limbs hurting each time he walked. Yet, he still felt as young as a kid. So, he knew he couldn’t stay in Corona much longer. People would see his condition and would talk. Some would even search the Sundrop itself. The news about it was already all over the world since it had fallen from the sky long ago.

He tried to spread the story of the Sundrop in a way people who would search for it wouldn’t go in the direction where the Flower really was, but he knew that anyone who searched long enough would find witnesses to tell where the prodigal cosmic artifact was more likely to have fallen long ago.

So, one day, looking as young as ever, he took his things and left the town, leaving the keys of his house in the hands of Herz Der Sonne and Shampanier’s grand-daughter and yet to be married queen of Corona. The royal family knew who he was, this was a well-guarded secret. They knew the Sundrop as a truth, while all around knew it as a myth, a nanny’s story to get the children to sleep.

Nonetheless, Xavier told them his nephew would come back in few years, predicting his own return as he never had any sibling. And so, for some time, he lived like this. He rented a house few years in one of the villages away from the capital. Then, he would come back in town, introducing himself as another member of his family, uncle, nephew, cousin, or even son once. Though the townspeople recognized the family, he did all he could so they couldn’t recognize the man himself. Sometimes, to make sure the fewer people would see he was the same man and not yet another family member, he changed his hair or clothes style in a way no doubts could even be asked about if he was Xavier himself or a relative. Though he always was Xavier in the end. And during the reign of king Frederic of Corona, he had settled once more in his house, using his skills as the royal blacksmith.

For a long time, he never heard of Gothel. He knew she kept going to the Sundrop’s flower on the ledge. But, since their return after the battle against Zhan Tiri at the Great Tree, he barely saw her.

She had been healed in days by the small amount of Sundrop he kept with him, and at last she was able to walk again without pain. The first thing she did when she left was to go to the Flower, and sing to it. The incantation held in itself a power she found reassuring. Even more reassuring than to recite the incantation to a portion of the Sundrop as her friend did. The Sundrop would stay forever. It wouldn’t come to an end as a cutting could at any moment. All she would have to do was ensure no one gets to it. Not now, not ever. And if one day Zhan Tiri was to come back, she would take the Flower itself, hide it, get its power for herself so the demon could never ever use it.

One of the first things she did to protect the Sundrop was to build it a cage. It was made of braided branches and leaves. Every times she went to the Flower, she took it out, and every time she went away, she put it back. From afar, from where you once could see the dim beacon of light on the ledge, now there was only darkness.

At first, she didn’t use the Sundrop often. There had been other priorities. Find a home. Learn of the things of Corona she missed while she was in the Great Tree, discover books about magic and test spells… She found in Xavier’s library one of those books. She kept it forever. Inside, Demanitus had hidden the key he had once proposed her to have. The key to his own old library, in the town far away where he was from. It was tempting to go there, take the books and learn from them. But she told herself she didn’t need those books. As long as she had the Sundrop and its power, she didn’t need any book.

One of the first spells she used nearly everyday was one to enchant mirrors so they could save portions of life times, and play them again, as many times as she’d like them to. The prime one she used was too mimic someone’s presence in her home when she wasn’t there, as she had became a bit paranoid after the battle at the Great Tree. And her growing unease being with other people never helped this paranoia go away, it only made it even bigger each time she met an unknown person. And from this paranoia came an attention for herself and her youth that was still hidden, held back for years. Demanitus and Xavier had thought of her she had become sour of heart years ago when she started learning magic, now sour would be even too gentle to describe her. The mirrors soon lost their protection use. She kept them for herself. The mirrors showed her her reflection, and sometimes, she would just tap the wood of one mirror, and watch her perfect sparkling youth.

Yet, even with all this personal attentions, she kept during the first decade a somewhat of connection to other people and villages. As a home, she had found and bought an old watermill, whose owner had passed the last winter. She rented the mill part to the nearest village’s millers. They gave her flour from the mill, and in exchange she gave them unguents and medicines she prepared with the knowledge she still had from her first healer training, back when she didn’t knew any magic, back when the Sundrop and Moonstone hadn’t even fell on Earth.

But weeks after weeks, and months after months, something wasn’t right. In her many mirrors, as she watched her hands wrinkle, and her face too, her hair graying, she suddenly felt horrendously old and hideous. As soon as humanly possible, she left the little cottage and the mill, and ran to the Flower. Years had passed since she last walked this path. She sang to the Flower, and once again, felt rejuvenated, young and free. That was then she knew the life she was living, still linked to society, was a mistake.

The day after, she cut all that kept her to the village. The millers would have to find another mill. That wasn’t her problem anymore.

Many years later, as she walked in the forest for ingredients for what would either be a soup or a potion, Gothel came back to the tower where Shampanier had let her team and herself rest, back during the war. The tower was still there, high toward the sky. It seemed as the war ended the upper floor had been changed. It wasn’t the spartan military type anymore. It seemed more cozy. Around it, where there was a clearing, trees had been planted. They were still young, barely twice her height for the tallest, yet only that changed drastically the view on the building. It was a new use for a bunch of old and cold stones.

That same day, when she came back to her cottage by the river, she took a detour to the Sundrop. It was still there. She sang, and once again, all that made feel her old went away. It was way more than the thousandth time she went there. And each time, the next one was closer, and closer. There was a time when she had to come barely each few months, maybe each year if she really had the patience. Now, she came each month, sometimes twice a month.

Gothel knew there was nothing to be done. It was how things were. She used directly the Sundrop’s power from the Flower. And though it was a gift of life, life was meant to become death, one day or another. Tromus had been right when he explained to her the Sundrop and Moonstone. To help something live is difficult, while to kill it is easy, he had said long ago. And though she kept pushing death back, it would still come one day. And Sundrop or not, nothing could change that, only help her repel that day each time further away from her. And she knew she kept aging faster and faster between each time she used the Flower too.

Once, she caught sight of Xavier in the woods. They had talked, as a friendly reminiscence of their youth with Demanitus and against Zhan Tiri. He suggested that her accelerated aging was because she used the Sundrop directly, so, as a strong flow of magic, it couldn’t be completely assimilated by her, and went away, faster than she would ever want it to. It was like a sudden downpour on a forest. The earth couldn’t have the time to use the water and it was drained away. While the use Xavier had of the Sundrop came from a diverted way, and he used it continually, with parsimony. And though he didn’t suddenly gained new youth, he aged very slowly. Like a days-long drizzle, it had the time to water the soils and feed the trees. The two processes were fundamentally different, and Gothel hated to admit her impulsiveness to get the Sundrop’s life power was in fact killing her.

Gothel knew she couldn’t possibly continue to go on like this. There had to be a way, for her legacy to live on, for the Sundrop to be protected, for Zhan Tiri to be defeated once more if she ever were to come back on Earth. She needed a pupil, someone she could teach all she knew of magic, all she knew of the Sundrop and Moonstone. And if one day she couldn’t watch herself into a mirror anymore, this person could. She needed someone that would take her reflection and make it their own. But most of all, she needed someone she knew she could trust. She knew just how to do it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next part will follow soon. It will be called (unless I find another title in the meantime) "A Tale of Hidden Moon and Hidden Sun".  
> I think I'll take some time before publishing it though, I'm kinda currently trying to figure out the plot for the next part and I'd rather take time to publish it than to feel like I have to rush it and be disappointed by it.
> 
> Meanwhile, I'm working on what should be the last chapter of "Our Journey Together", so I should be able to publish this one before part II of "Retelling Corona's Tales".
> 
> See you there!


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